Egypt Leader Tries to Calm Opposition

Morsi Offers to Meet With Political Opponents Saturday Over His Expanded Powers, as More Protests Are Set for Friday

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Protesters chant slogans against President Morsi Thursday in front of a barricade guarded by a tank outside the presidential palace in Cairo.
Reuters

By

Matt Bradley

Updated Dec. 6, 2012 7:25 p.m. ET

CAIRO—Egypt President Mohammed Morsi made a tentative concession to his opponents Thursday after the government deployed tanks to end demonstrations by the presidential palace, as planned protests threatened more violence on Friday.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi addressed his people late Thursday as his nation's army deployed tanks to clear the area outside the presidential palace following fierce street battles. Matt Bradley has details on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.

In a late-night address to the nation, Mr. Morsi invited political leaders to meet with him on Saturday to discuss withdrawing a controversial article from a constitutional declaration that awarded the president near absolute power late last month.

By falling so short of their demands, some opposition leaders said the speech was more likely to inflame protests against Mr. Morsi's recently expanded powers than to assuage them.

Mr. Morsi's speech was followed immediately by violence. The Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the powerful Islamist organization Mr. Morsi once led, was set on fire, according to the group's official Twitter account. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

More than 30 Brotherhood buildings have been set alight since violent confrontations between secularists and Islamists began late last month, said Gehad al Haddad, an adviser to the Brotherhood's leadership.

Protests Intensify in Cairo

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In his speech, Mr. Morsi made no offer to meet opposition demands that he reschedule a Dec. 15 referendum on a proposed constitution. But he pledged to form a new assembly to write another constitution if the current draft is rejected in the national vote.

Speaking with a level voice and displaying little emotion, Mr. Morsi castigated his opponents, accusing them of acting in the thrall of former regime loyalists and foreign saboteurs, while casting himself as the final protector of Egypt's security and stability.

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An Egyptian protester on Wednesday in Cairo holds a placard reading in Arabic, "Morsi is not allowed in."
European Pressphoto Agency

"It is my duty to safeguard the homeland, to work relentlessly for its stability and the safety of all its citizens," he said.

Activists said the speech's unyielding tone was redolent of the kind of the political hubris that has marked the beginning of the end for a series of Arab leaders who were eventually toppled by public protests and armed mutinies throughout the so-called Arab Spring, including former Egypt President Hosni Mubarak.

"This is the same Mubarak speech," said Wael Eskandar, a prominent, secular-leaning activist, blogger and journalist. Mr. Mubarak's late concessions only further angered a public already in the throes of dissent.

"This is what happens with dictators," Mr. Eskandar said. "They become obstinate and they keep pushing for what they want and offer no concessions until they start losing on the ground."

The White House said President Barack Obama called Mr. Morsi to express his concern about the deaths and injuries of protesters and welcomed the Egyptian leader's call for a dialogue, which Mr. Obama said "should occur without preconditions."

Two spokesmen for opposition political parties said it was unclear Thursday night whether they would send representatives to Mr. Morsi's Saturday dialogue. But protests scheduled for Friday appeared set to proceed.

Police have stepped in to separate pro- and anti-government demonstrators outside the presidential palace in Cairo. WSJ's Matt Bradley reports on further violence overnight and the possibility of an escalation in the runup to Friday prayers.

Mr. Morsi outraged his opponents and many of his supporters when he expanded his own powers late last month at the expense of the country's judges.

The president and the powerful Brotherhood organization that backs him say the judiciary is stocked with former Mubarak loyalists intent on overthrowing his new Islamist government.

To avoid a confrontation with the judges, Mr. Morsi's allies in a constitutional drafting panel rushed to approve a draft of the document days before an Egyptian court was scheduled to rule on the committee's legitimacy.

But Mr. Morsi's opponents—among them the youthful revolutionaries who spearheaded Mr. Mubarak's downfall nearly two years ago—said the president's decree and his handling of the constitution smacked of an Islamist putsch.

Mr. Haddad said that the president has always been open to dialogue, but that his opponents remain so unorganized they can't even articulate a unified set of demands. Instead, Mr. Morsi's opponents are motivated more by suspicion of an Islamist leader and resentment over his popularity than Mr. Morsi's aggressive political moves, he said.

"I think that this reinforces the fact that the door is still open," Mr. Haddad said. "We can't help that they lost the presidential election. Going on TV channels and whining about it isn't going to help."

The president's speech came on the back of some of the most shocking violence that has afflicted Egypt's two-year-long postrevolutionary transition. Clashes between Mr. Morsi's supporters and his mostly secular opponents near the presidential palace on Wednesday night left six people dead and more than 400 injured, according to the official state news agency.

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Mr. Morsi addresses the nation.
Associated Press

The Republican Guard, an elite military unit charged with protecting the president, deployed tanks and armored cars in front of the presidential palace on Thursday morning to keep order. The Islamist protesters who had camped their overnight left quietly after the soldiers issued a 3 p.m. ultimatum.

In his speech on Thursday, Mr. Morsi addressed the previous night's violence directly, using it to justify his own extraordinary expansion of power.

"Those who have taken advantage of the situation—paying thugs, buying arms, handing out money—the time has come for them to be penalized by the law," the president said.

"Confessions" from thugs revealed that they had been paid, Mr. Morsi said. "Today I would like to reiterate that the facts that made me hand down the presidential decree are represented in the events threatening the security of the homeland."

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